Maria Ochoa

Kingdom of the Dead

Today we dive into parts of Zorca culture and history!

Original post that inspired this is found here!

Unlike most zora, the zorca don’t have a kingdom or territory to call their own. In the past, families have tried to settle resulting in disastrous consequences involving groups fighting for resources, and struggling to keep families f...

The Zorca (Zora Orca)

🐋 The Basics 

The average zorca is larger than a hylian zora, ranging from 15 to 20 ft in height. They're bulkier and wider, carrying more fat/blubber which protects them from harsh elements, being completely immune to ice and lightning specifically. Because of their size they don't go inland very oft...

Comic - Meet Cute not EAT Cute! (cont)

Here is the rest of my comic about Yona and Cironus' first meeting! There was a bit of a gap between pages but finished is finished! And when I did work on these pages it had me smiling and that's always a good sign. This comic may or may not have been an excuse to learn how to draw Yona and add in my own story bits about her, since there's very little for her in the actual game. She's MY character now 😎

Denison Denizens

Early in the summer I was browsing FF7 spaces to look for a roleplaying community. Unfortunately the ones I found were small and very exclusive to the point it isolated a lot of the active players who slowly began to quit. By the time I was working on a blog to test the waters, it was too late 😔

My blog was going to be about my OCs, and I thought if I couldn't find roleplaying circles then maybe it could be an ask/art blog. It didn't work out but here is the art I made for the banner...

Comic - An unorthodox engagement

When I was wrapping up my sketchbook I wanted to draw some happily ever after moments for Rufus and Diana. But the two like to troll each and Rufus enjoys being a bastard XD They both been through a lot of hardships that changed them both, and this type of interaction was a way to tell the other "It's safe, we can be ourselves again"

In this house we love and respect Barret Wallace

This was one of my favorite spreads from my ff7 sketchbook. Here I was doing studies for Barret and played with more ideas where I inserted Diana into Rebirth.

I started asking questions regarding how the others took care of their basic needs like food and water when traveling. Diana became the member who made sure to remind everyone to stop and hydrate. She made a point to buy water bottles and small snacks for the road.

The mini comic on the right was a small joke about how Ba...

Scheduled posts

I don't want this place to be totally quiet but I'm not quite ready to jump back online and socialize. So expect a queue to slowly upload posts here and there during the month. Be on the lookout for:

- Art from my FF7 sketchbook! Some I never could upload because the files were lost during the laptop incident

- The remaining sketches from my zora sketchbook because after four months, it's finally done ✊

- There is a new collection simply labeled My Writings. I'll be moving...

Temporary Hiatus

Hey all,

I wanted to let everyone here know I'll be absent for a while. Originally it was to say that this coming week is Thanksgiving, but yesterday I had to go to the ER due to some chest sensations I've been having over the past week. The doctors told me it looked like stress, but they wanted to make sure it was nothing heart related because my blood pressure was really high at the time.

I would like to say that I'm okay. I'm not in any danger regarding heart issues at least, ...

Zora dating game

I was doing prompts on my blog to keep my mind of events and one prompt was to draw a chosen character as if they were in a dating sim. The first chosen was Sardon and had a lot of fun with the process and someone else chose Cironus so that came later. I'm really proud with making the whole thing look like something from the games! I posted these on tumblr but here are the higher quality pieces plus the sketches they started out from! :D

something of a roll call

Hello! So I wanted to gauge and see who visits and checks out my art on patreon. I have a few friends who leave comments and others leave something in the tip jar and go on their way and both are appreciated!

My audience is very small and I kept telling myself when/if it grew I would love to do something to engage with folks (drawing requests, commission discounts, etc) but maybe that's not in the cards 😅even so, to anyone who reads this, I would love to get your opinions.

At ...

October is Octover :<

The month was a little weird for me. Some online drama knocked the wind out of my sails and I've been focused on that and been occupied with paranoia and self confidence issues. In turn I put a lot of personal projects to the side but tried to distract myself with positive things! I did a lot of smaller doodles I was able to upload to tumblr but I wanted to share some things here too!

I don't want to go into a full on rant but I gotta say Im never 100% confident in my own works, and som...

Old Light Falls

This idea was inspired by the lyrics from Songs for No One by Caligula's Horse. I've been associating it with Cironus and his healing powers, and some lyrics made me think about how the zorca would have funerals and connected it to whale falls.

It started as a sketch, then had to add markers and then used black washi tape to add the words. It's messy but I think it adds something to it!

Dolphin studies

The week has been rough in a lot of ways so this was a nice little way to cool down and decompress. My friend's dolphin zora is based on a short-beaked common dolphin and wow they're pretty! So I did a few warm up sketches using refs, and a random mermaid/human AU in the corner featuring Sona, Sardon and Cironus XD

Comic - Girl Talk

This is a "mini episode" comic for my friend's Legend of Zelda fancomic, featuring their dolphin zora speaking with Yona. For context, Sona and my zorca boy, Sardon had just expressed affection for one another, followed by a courting gesture Sardon's people do called teeth raking! Which unfortunately, drew a little blood on poor Sona. Yona offers to help and gives her a little advice ;3

This was a cute exchange to do, and great practice drawing different characters. This collaboration m...

Banners for a new blog

As the title says! Wanted to make some banners to decorate a new blog. Lately I've been struggling to focus and a big hang up I've been feeling lately is finding ways to organize my work. Even though having my work "in order" is not a necessity, it's still something my brain kept dwelling on and it felt like it prevented me from concentrating on anything else.

As a way to help ease that feeling I made a new blog specifically for all my zorca lore. Maybe in the end it wont help, or maybe...

Comic - Meet Cute not EAT Cute!

This was a small side project I'm working on here and there about how Cironus and Yona met. It's not finished yet but I wanted to get the first set of pages up as I work on the rest. I've been really inspired to get back into comics and be more loose with my scenes, if that makes sense? I tend to fuss a lot over each panel so this is an opportunity to push myself to say "once its on paper, leave it be, move on!"

Hope you enjoy these till the next part is uploaded!

Agra the Red Panda

For October I'm kinda going willy-nilly with OC-tober. Friends and I made a list of prompts so we're picking and choosing whatever, to do whenever!

I was following Smacky's example and doing a species swap! The idea was to turn Agra into one of those animal people you see around the DB world and my first choice was a fox but then switched it to a red panda because it fit her so well and I'm happy with the results! :D

Comic - Careful, he bites!

So this month has been something! I've been wanting to share my art on my blog but also have something to share here. And the weather is slowly changing and the barometric pressure has been getting to me so there's been days where I had no energy at all.

But here we are! These pages will debut in a few days for a friend's Zelda Fan-Comic and...

The Zorca have returned!

Before the laptop crash, I started on a new sketchbook and LoZ was my hyper-fixation again! But I've been itching to do more with Cironus, and I have! To start with, I'm sharing some character ref sheets to get some basic ideas down on paper, and it also includes his family I've been working on. They got to have a part in a lovely Zelda fan-comic done by a friend you can find 2024-09-04 18:41:45 +0000 UTC View Post

Laptop update

Despite all the help from so many wonderful and nice people, this update basically bricked my laptop and the security key needed (which was not given to me at all) is the only thing that could fix it. And was told that without this key (which cannot be replicated) the hard drive on my laptop might as well not exist. So after much stalling, it was time for a factory reset.

This has probably been the biggest loss I felt computer wise. I've usually been so good with backing up my files but...

Laptop issues

So a dumb update locked up my laptop and there's no solution so far that allows me in. Our last LAST option is resetting everything which will erase all my work I have saved 😭 we don't want to do that yet. Fingers crossed there can be another option.

For now, art uploading will be on hold. I'm not using the site app because of recent updates to patreon and for anyone old or new here don't use it either!

Thanks for your patience and support and see you hopefully soon with my lap...

More of Diana's family history

In July I finished this sketchbook and now it's just a slow journey to get all the pages I like scanned and uploaded here.

This set of pages are ones I'm really fond of. When I can tell stories through art it feels POWERFUL! It doesn't have to be in like full comic form either, just as long as I can be coherent with my ideas in some form.

My only small nitpick for any of these is I got Diana and Reno's births mixed up XD He's supposed to be born first and she follows a few months ...

Art Fight 2024!

Apologies for being silent most of the month. I have been busy doing art fight once again!

I didn't do as many as I planned and I struggled a bit with wanting to keep my coloring style consistent, but like last year, it was a fun learning experience. It's great to get out of my comfort zones and draw new faces, and settings. I'm not sure if I'm going to try again next year though. It can be fun but I worry about pushing too hard to the point of burn out

Characters and creators are...

Comic - Smile!

Another comic of shenanigans, featuring Aerith and Diana. In Rebirth, when the group is in Junon you come across a group of soldiers who are taking pictures with a standee of Rufus Shinra. So I started playing with the idea of what would Diana do? Especially when Aerith is more than happy to enable self indulgent impulses :3c

IM BACK ON MY BULLSHIT

I never left honestly. While I was doing Zora May pictures I was also continuing my sketchbook of FF7 shipping related things! It's extremely freeing to be this feral and unhinged over something :D

I used a lot of reference to help me work on dynamic poses and Ive been trying to push myself to draw small scenes, something that shows the personalities of the characters involved. Since a couple of these are kinda spicy (more like paprika) I'm keeping this as a patron only post. Enjoy the ...

Age of Calamity: Cironus profile!

My final piece for Zora May was doing a mock page for Cironus as if he had a profile in the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity game! The art style for BotW and TotK have this cool painterly look to them and I wanted to give that a try. I always worry my art doesn't look so great when it lacks solid lines like the sketch. But I like it, and I hope you do too! :D

Memes, courtship and accessories!

More prompts from Zora May, featuring Yona and Sidon this time! I spoofed a few memes to show Cironus being silly and flirty with the two. Initially I had this idea that he'd be crushing hard on Yona but with all the ship wars that go on, I realized nah don't want any love triangles or drama. There is that old adage that "X character has two hands!" well, Cironus has two hands AND BIG SHOULDERS (for more to sit on!) Plus, orca whales in real life are polygamous!

The last two pieces were...

Rock on, you big whale

I did these for Zora May's prompt "Water Magic" because Cironus' powers come from his songs/voice, and like Mipha, Sidon and Yona he's following the trend of doing supportive magic! His song spells are similar to how food recipes work in BotW/TotK where they can increase hearts, add attack and defense, etc. And he would have songs that debuff enemies too. His spells get stronger the louder he is, so when he has room to really perform, those around him will get all the best stats...

Lizalfos snack!

There's a beautiful painting called "Sealed Fate" that inspired this. Bokoblins and Lizalfos have become part of the zorca diet, and you see enough of them in the games where they frequent beach areas that it would be plausible. Orcas are such fantastic and intelligent hunters, and its scary to see how much power they have, you never really comprehend how big they are. I wanted to convey that in this image....

Deleting my Deviant Art account

I'm going to delete my old Devart account, but only after I save all my stored art which will take some time. I had left DA over a decade ago but I couldn't bring myself to delete it then because there were many fond memories and I enjoyed looking at my old art and comments and convos left by my friends.

But the site itself has spiraled so far down I don't like the idea of keeping my account even if it's basically empty. Especially not a fan of how they're promoting people to use their ...